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Social Worker Creates Program to Help Children in Native Haiti

Haitian children. Photo courtesy of the Andora Project.

Cheers to PBS for this article and TV segment on Rachel Pierre, a Haitian-born social worker who was educated in the United States but decided to set up an organization to help children in her native country.

Haiti has no child welfare system and unattached children are at risk of being sent abroad by child traffickers.

Some Haitian parents who cannot provide for their offspring also send their children to other families where they do light housework in exchange for an education.

However some children in these “restavek” arrangements end up abused or neglected by host families.

The Haitian earthquake a year ago prompted Pierre to make her program a reality. She quit her child welfare job with Washington, D.C. and founded the Andora Project, an organization that uses collaborations and programs to build a social work system in Haiti.

The U.S. State Department has already used Andora Project recommendations in its human trafficking report.

To learn more about how social workers get involved in international affairs visit the National Association of Social Workers’ International Social Work web site by clicking here.And to learn how social workers help vulnerable children visit NASW’s “Help Starts Here” Kids and Families web site by clicking here.

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4 Comments

  1. This is a very interesting information. I’m looking forward to learning more about the Andora Project, mainly because I will be visiting Haiti in the summer, specifically the Pwoje Espwa orphanage where more than 600 children reside.

    Thank you for this post.

  2. I Suzi McQueen , would like to be apart of you organization. I have been doing Advocacy work since I was 19 yrs of age and currently go to school for social work as well. My email address: msuzi19@yahoo.com

  3. Suzi:

    Thanks for your comment. To learn more about NASW membership visit: https://www.socialworkers.org/join.asp.

    Greg Wright
    NASW Senior Communications and Public Relations Specialist

  4. Hey! I love your blog! I am an LSW from MN. But, check out what we’re creating in Haiti! #socialworkinhaiti
    http://www.haitimama.org

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